OP Sequence

OP: 「アイコトバ Password」 (Aikotoba) by Garnidelia

「ミノア、アニメルーキー!」 (Minoa, Anime Ruukii!)
“Minoa, Anime Rookie!”

The first episode of Animegataris is about to begin, and it’s got somewhat of a promising start. If the ending of Gamers! left a void in your heart of shows with a plucky cast of lovable geeks, Animegataris has got you covered. Admittedly, I’m in the very small minority of people who dropped Gamers! at the first sight of misunderstandings, but this series is looking to focus outside of the cast’s love life, so this could be exciting for those who were discouraged by the love pentagram. We’re not out of the woods yet though, since the emerging threat of sci-fi action and fantasy looks to interfere with our slice-of-life antics. Will our heroines’ quest to watch all the anime under the sun be threatened by the appearance of a talking cat and a mystic beret?

What I found to be Animegataris‘ strongest attribute in this first episode is how in introduces its cast. Minoa (Hondo Kaede) is relatively inexperienced in her anime watching habits, but is dedicated to finding out what on earth was that one anime she watched as a kid. The memory of that one anime keeps showing up in her dreams, but the name wasn’t registering; just the lingering imagery it brought. I had a similar experience too, but with the song “Most Girls” by P!nk when she started out in R&B. It played at malls and movie theaters, but was merely a childhood memory that kept lingering until it showed up on Sirius radio during my undergrad years. That aside, Minoa comes off as an easy character to cheer for and relate to because she is still open-minded about watching other anime, and is enthused at the possibility of forming an anime club so that she can both learn about anime and cure that nagging feeling she has about that one anime she remembers watching as a kid. They also gave her some humorous reactions to the weirdness around her, so that’s always appreciated.

It was funny when her older sister Maaya (Minase Iori) didn’t wake her up for her first day of school, but took the time to tease her for what kind of things she was saying while she was sleeping. That and the OP made me optimistic that Animegataris will commit itself to giving the supporting cast good roles within the series. Miko (Tojo Hisako) looks like a fun character to have in the club considering how much she liked reading the To Aru novel throughout the episode, so I’m anticipating how she reacts to the news of the anime club re-emerging.

I absolutely loved Arisu (Senbongi Sayaka), the aristocratic rich girl who happens to be a massive anime fan. To see her face light up so much as she was trying to figure out what type of anime Minoa enjoys watching was the cutest thing in this show so far. The anime references so far are topical enough to exemplify the show’s dedication to capturing the spirit of the hardcore anime fandom, but it was absolutely relatable to see Arisu get so hyped up going from genre to genre to guess which anime would be Minoa’s type. I think it was the “Which shows are you watching this season?” question Arisu proposed that hit close to home in a good way, where picking apart and examining what trends are happening season-to-season have become rituals every season. Her butler didn’t have as much to do, but seeing him get as teary eyed as Arisu did about one of the anime shows she remembers was priceless. If there are more moments like Arisu revealing how high her power level is, I can definitely say Animegataris will be amazing to follow up with.

There is one thing I’m skeptical with; the talking cat. The cat is very cute, but I feel like the show would’ve been just fine if it didn’t have a talking cat, or some mysterious bond that Minoa has with a mystical beret. Blend-S didn’t need to have a talking animal to make the wheels of the plot move, nor did Konohana Kitan rely on a talking mop bucket to maintain its level of charm. I might just be curmudgeonly shaking my fists into the clouds, but I’m uncertain of whether the show needed to have a supernatural element to it when I enjoyed the interactions between Minoa and Arisu just fine, and am looking forward to how the other characters in the credits join the anime club. It makes me unsure of how well it’ll pull off the fantasy elements, but the cat did tell me not to drop it after the first episode, so I have to respect the cat’s wishes.

ED Sequence

ED: 「Good Luck Lilac」 by GATALIS

16 Comments

  1. That was fun, even had a CGI dance scene for the ED.

    Arisu is new to the identify the anime game, she forgot to ask what timeframe the anime aired so its easier to guess.

    sithstormjedi
    1. That would’ve helped narrow down the list much easier. Heck, give the year she was a kid at, and it’d be easy to weed out the ones within that older time frame. Someone did say that it’s likely that Minoa was describing several anime, but lumped them all in together.

      Choya
  2. My first Anime contact was in my Holidays in Portugal, where they show an Anime.. At that time i must been 8 Years (around).. But i never found out the name of it..

    until i watched Full Metal Panic.. where they show the scene of “Future Boy Conan”..it was this scene what i searched for that long…

    Funny is it not? i needed to go around corners to find that what i seek for so long

    But not knowing, i had already contact with “animes”..
    Heidi aus den Bergen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu7MjOd0o0Y
    Maya the Honey Bee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_the_Honey_Bee

    Worldwidedepp
    1. btw, this short Anime memory of this Girl.. seems like Macross.. the singer gave it away.. at first i did not know if it was also Macross.. But then, when she had the Micro in her hand and began to sing… Macross

      it could also be Nadia the secret of Blue Water.. but as i said, the Microphone gave her away

      Worldwidedepp
    2. OH MY GOD FUTURE BOY CONAN! YES! that’s what it was. you have no idea how thankful I’m to you right now for solving one of my old childhood memories. I watched that show more than 30 years ago. seriously thanks.

      vinny
  3. Watched Part A…

    This Anime is for the “old ones” that go touched by Anime as a little Kid.. in short like for persons like me and you.

    my recommendation, if you want to bath a little in the good old times, but stay in the present. then this is a show for you and for me

    Worldwidedepp
    1. There were some great parody titles in there. I loved Cinnamon Roll Z and “A Report on the Irresponsible and Depressing Chronicles of Me and a Certain Eccentric Childhood Friend,” the lengthy title that was supposed to be A Certain Magical Index.

      Choya
  4. oh boy…
    in my case first contact with anime was kinda second hand, with Battle of the Planetes airing in communist 1980s Poland of all places. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Planets
    I was kinda in a position of that Moliere character who was unaware of using prose for a whole life :p
    And much much more later came my second contact… in early 1990s with freshly-reunited Germany TV commercial station VOX airing some back-then anime hits, from which the most impact on me had Bubblegum Crisis, burning into my brain visions action girls with powered armor and excellent j-rock soundtrack.
    Third step was pretty much mainstream one – some Polish commercial TV went with adventure spirit and I got myself hooked on classics like Slayers and Magic Knights Rayearth. While pretending to NOT watch Sailor Moon being devoured by my wide-eyed imouto… (Yes I have real life otaku imouto. She is nothing like Umaru-chan, though… and no wincest ever crossed our minds and hearts. Life is not anime plot – usually)

    ewok40k
  5. Oh man. When it comes to anime that defined my childhood, I can’t help but to run my mouth endlessly.
    1st of all, there were UFO Robo Grendizer and Chou Denji Robo Combattler V. I never got bored (how can kids get bored after all XD) of watching the finishing moves in those shows. I also had the luck to have Future Boy Conan air on my television, and… sigh, those were the memories.
    Can’t say I was watching DBZ that much when I was a kid, but I did watch it later on and am now rewatching it for the sake of Dragon Ball FighterZ, but then there was Pokemon, and then came Digimon Adventure 1 & 2 which trumped Pokemon in every way.
    TV was awesome back when I was a kid. And I’m so lucky to have their names memorized for all eternity.

  6. Sadly, my first couple anime I was obsessed with on TV weren’t too out of left field with the Sailor Moon/Pokemon/DBZ trinity appearing along with Speed Racer. The strangest anime I watched as a kid was Noozles, otherwise known as Fushigina Koara Burinkii. That was something I ended up stumbling across as a kid after getting the VHS from the dollar store.

    Choya
  7. Choya you dropped Gamers! Good for you I didn’t like the show and the misconception got annoying after 12 episodes. Yet I watched it all and I don’t know why. That said I enjoyed this show.

    Renasayers
    1. At first I dropped it around Episode 2 out of pure laziness of continuing to watching more shows than what I was following. I was thinking of getting up to Episode 3, but noped upon figuring out that it was going to be more about the love pentagram than the club.

      That’s not to say that’s an indictment on the show itself. I’m sure it was still a great anime. It’s hard for it not to be with P4A Ultimax. Misconceptions in romcoms are just a pet peeve of mine that can be a deal breaker.

      Hopefully, they’ll eventually adapt more of the LN’s so that viewers will be able to see how everything turns out.

      Choya
  8. Ep 02:

    Pfft, this Episode hit so many Buttons, that i feel at ease

    You will laugh you heart out when you see the “changing cloths” dancing of Sebas, and Music from “Lucky Star”

    But they do not dwell in our anime past, no they also use the present ones

    Worldwidedepp

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